Jordan: Country Report | 2024
AI Generated Analysis based on UNHCR Forced Displacement Statisitics.
Executive Summary
Key Trends in Forced Displacement: Jordan 2024
A testament to enduring solidarity in a region of turmoil, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan continues to shoulder a profound humanitarian responsibility, hosting 761,000 persons of concern. This figure, representing one of the highest refugee-per-capita ratios in the world, is defined by the protracted Syrian crisis, with over 611,000 Syrian refugees forming the vast majority of the displaced population. While the overall number appears stable, it masks a dynamic and complex reality: a recent decrease in the registered refugee population, driven by resettlement and data verification, is occurring alongside a steady rise in new asylum-seekers from other regional conflicts, placing immense and evolving pressure on national systems.
Low- and middle-income countries like Jordan remain at the forefront of the global refugee response. The nation’s generosity is evident not only in hosting a young refugee population with significant long-term needs in education and protection, but also in managing a national asylum system under considerable strain. A widening gap between asylum applications and decisions signals a growing backlog, yet the system continues to deliver protection, with refugee status being the primary outcome. This underscores both an unwavering commitment to international law and the urgent need for greater international burden-sharing to support strained host community services and infrastructure.
A dramatic shift in the landscape for durable solutions offers a critical window of opportunity. After a severe post-pandemic slump where solutions fell below 7,000 annually, projections for 2024 and 2025 signal a monumental increase to over 65,000 and 101,000 respectively. This welcome surge, primarily focused on resettlement, is a lifeline for refugees in long-term exile. However, it is vital to recognise this addresses the existing protracted population, not new arrivals. Realizing these ambitious targets will require unwavering political will and financial commitment from the international community to ensure these pathways to a dignified future become a reality for thousands.
Population Overview
Population Overview
As of mid-2024, the total population of concern to UNHCR in Jordan stands at 761,000 individuals. This figure, while relatively stable over the past five years, masks significant underlying dynamics and represents one of the highest refugee-to-citizen ratios in the world, underscoring the immense and enduring generosity of the host country.
The data reveals a demographic landscape overwhelmingly shaped by the protracted crisis in the Syrian Arab Republic. Refugees constitute the vast majority of the population of concern, numbering 647,000. Of these, over 611,000 are from Syria, a figure that dwarfs all other nationalities combined and highlights the long-term impact of the neighbouring conflict. Smaller refugee populations from Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, and Somalia reflect other, albeit less pronounced, regional instabilities.
Behind these stark numbers lies a demographic profile indicative of long-term protection needs and future challenges. The population is remarkably young, with a wide base that tapers with age. Children under the age of 18 represent a significant portion of the total, pointing to sustained, critical needs in education, child protection, and psychosocial support. The gender distribution is almost perfectly balanced across all age cohorts, suggesting that most families have been displaced as intact units.
Recent trends indicate a complex and evolving situation. While the total population of concern has gradually risen since 2019, the period between 2023 and 2024 saw a notable decrease in the registered refugee population by over 40,000 people. This change likely reflects a combination of factors, including durable solutions such as resettlement to third countries, voluntary repatriation, and the results of ongoing data verification exercises. Concurrently, the number of asylum-seekers has continued a steady upward trend, reaching 78,000 by mid-2024. This demonstrates that while the Syrian crisis remains the primary driver of displacement in Jordan, new and ongoing insecurities in the region continue to compel people to seek international protection.
Demographics
AI Insight: A treemap of the populations of concern in Jordan, where refugees constitute the overwhelming majority of the total 677,000 individuals as of 2024., This treemap visualizes the composition of the 677,000 individuals classified as populations of concern in Jordan for the year 2024. The visualization uses rectangles of varying sizes to represent the proportion of each of the seven distinct population types.
The data is heavily skewed, with one group overwhelmingly dominating the total. This single category accounts for 643,641 individuals, representing approximately 95% of the total population of concern. Visually, this is represented by the largest rectangle, which occupies the vast majority of the chart area.
The other six population categories are significantly smaller. The statistical summary highlights this disparity, with a median population size of only 17 individuals and 75% of categories having fewer than 16,478 individuals. This extreme contrast underscores that while multiple population types are present in Jordan, one group forms the primary focus of humanitarian operations in terms of scale.
AI Insight: Population pyramid of the age and gender distribution for populations of concern in Jordan, where the population is heavily concentrated in younger age groups and is almost evenly split between males and females., This population pyramid displays the age and gender distribution for 11,377,319 persons of concern (including refugees, asylum-seekers, and others) in Jordan, as of 2024. The data notably features 100% gender disaggregation.
The vertical axis is segmented into five age cohorts: 0-4, 5-11, 12-17, 18-59, and 60+ years. The horizontal axis represents the percentage of the population, with males on the left and females on the right.
The pyramid’s shape is expansive, with a wide base that tapers towards the top, indicating a very young population. The largest cohort is the 0-4 age group, accounting for approximately 24.2% of all males and 24.3% of all females. The population size decreases progressively with each older age group.
Statistically, the gender distribution is remarkably balanced. The mean percentage across all age groups is 10.0% for males and 9.96% for females. This near-perfect symmetry suggests a stable population structure without significant gender-specific disparities.
Trends Over Time
AI Insight: Stacked column chart of the number of people of concern in Jordan by population type from 2019 to 2024, where the total population shows a slight overall increase and refugees consistently constitute the vast majority., This stacked column chart displays the composition of UNHCR’s populations of concern in Jordan annually from 2019 to 2024, with figures presented in thousands. The total population of concern has seen a gradual increase over the period, starting at 746,000 in 2019 and peaking at 762,000 in 2023, before a minor decrease to 761,000 in 2024.
The data is broken down into six population types, though one type, Internally Displaced Persons, consistently reports zero individuals throughout the period.
Refugees are, by a significant margin, the largest group, accounting for the vast majority of the total population each year. Their numbers remained relatively stable, starting at approximately 655,000 in 2019 and ending at 647,000 in 2024.
Asylum-seekers form the second-largest group, with their numbers showing a steady increase from 67,000 in 2019 to 78,000 in 2024.
Other categories, including ‘Stateless persons’, ‘Others of concern’, and ‘Returned refugees’, represent much smaller proportions of the total population, each numbering less than 40,000 individuals annually.
Here is the detailed data in thousands: - 2019: Total 746k (Refugees 655k, Asylum-seekers 67k, Stateless persons 3k, Returned refugees 20k, Others of concern 0.5k) - 2020: Total 750k (Refugees 662k, Asylum-seekers 69k, Stateless persons 3k, Returned refugees 15k, Others of concern 0.5k) - 2021: Total 755k (Refugees 672k, Asylum-seekers 71k, Stateless persons 4k, Returned refugees 8k, Others of concern 0.4k) - 2022: Total 756k (Refugees 675k, Asylum-seekers 72k, Stateless persons 4k, Returned refugees 5k, Others of concern 0.4k) - 2023: Total 762k (Refugees 658k, Asylum-seekers 75k, Stateless persons 4k, Returned refugees 25k, Others of concern 0.4k) - 2024: Total 761k (Refugees 647k, Asylum-seekers 78k, Stateless persons 4k, Returned refugees 32k, Others of concern 0.4k)
AI Insight: Bar chart of the change in population groups in Jordan between 2023 and 2024, where the largest group, refugees, decreased by over 40,000 people., This bar chart illustrates the increases and decreases across six distinct population groups of concern to UNHCR in Jordan between 2023 and 2024. The data is presented in both absolute numbers and percentages.
The primary trend shown is a general decrease across the populations. The statistical data indicates that no group experienced a population increase during this period. The most significant change occurred within the largest population group, which saw its numbers fall from 684,066 in 2023 to 643,641 in 2024. This constitutes a reduction of 40,425 individuals, representing a 5.9% decrease for that group.
The chart visually represents these changes with horizontal bars for each of the six population categories, with the length of the bar corresponding to the magnitude of the change. Data labels on each bar provide the precise figures for the absolute and percentage change. This overall decrease in population numbers may be attributed to a combination of factors, including resettlement to third countries, voluntary repatriation, and potential data verification exercises.
AI Insight: Horizontal bar chart of the number of refugees in Jordan by top 9 countries of origin for 2024, where the Syrian Arab Republic accounts for the vast majority with over 611,000 individuals., This horizontal bar chart presents the distribution of refugees in Jordan by their top nine countries of origin as of 2024. The data reveals a highly skewed distribution, dominated by a single nationality.
Statistical Analysis: The dataset includes 10 groups (nine countries and an ‘Other’ category). The largest group, refugees from the Syrian Arab Republic, numbers 611,473. This figure is an extreme outlier and drastically inflates the mean population size to 64,364. A more representative measure of the central tendency is the median, which is only 304 individuals per origin country. The vast difference between the mean and median, along with a very high standard deviation of 192,397, underscores the extreme concentration. The 75th percentile is 2,966, meaning that most of the other origin countries have populations well below 3,000 people, with the smallest group numbering just 37 individuals.
Context: This demographic profile is a direct consequence of the protracted conflict in neighboring Syria, which has led to one of the largest refugee crises of the 21st century. Jordan’s geographical proximity has made it a primary destination for those fleeing the conflict. The significantly smaller numbers from other countries, such as Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, and Somalia, reflect other regional instabilities but on a much smaller scale in the context of Jordan’s refugee population.
Geography & Movements
Jordan: A Hub of Protracted Displacement and Onward Movement
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan continues to demonstrate remarkable solidarity, hosting one of the largest refugee populations per capita globally. The data reveals that the displacement situation within its borders is defined by the protracted nature of the Syrian crisis. As of 2024, refugees from Syria constitute the overwhelming majority of the forcibly displaced population, numbering over 611,000. While Jordan also provides sanctuary to smaller, stable populations from Iraq, Yemen, and other nations, the sheer scale of the Syrian cohort underscores the immense and sustained pressure on national services and host communities. Analysis of trends since 2019 confirms the stability of this demographic landscape, with no significant shifts in the composition of origin, pointing to the long-term challenge of finding durable solutions for these populations.
Simultaneously, Jordan serves as a point of departure for refugees and other persons of concern seeking safety and solutions elsewhere. While individuals who were in Jordan have reached at least 54 countries, the pathways to protection are highly concentrated. This is most evident in the fact that a single destination country now hosts over 52,000 individuals, a figure that dwarfs the numbers received by other nations. Behind this leading destination, the distribution remains significantly skewed; the median population across the top ten host countries is just over 7,200. This pattern reveals that resettlement and other opportunities for those displaced in Jordan, while geographically widespread, are functionally concentrated within a limited number of humanitarian corridors. Behind these stark numbers lies the story of a nation shouldering a profound, long-term responsibility while also being a critical juncture in the global search for safety and stability.
AI Insight: Choropleth map of destination countries for refugees and other persons of concern from Jordan, where a few countries host the majority of individuals, with the top destination hosting over 7,200 people., This world map illustrates the global distribution of various populations of concern originating from Jordan as of 2024, including refugees, asylum-seekers, and stateless persons. Countries are color-coded to represent the number of individuals they host.
The data is based on a dataset covering 54 destination countries. The number of individuals per country shows a highly skewed distribution, ranging from a minimum of 5 to a maximum of 7,272. This indicates a significant concentration in a small number of host nations. The median number of hosted individuals is 19, while the mean is 376, a difference that highlights the influence of outliers with large populations. The interquartile range shows that 50% of the host countries have between 6 and 93 individuals. The primary insight is that while people from Jordan have found refuge in numerous countries, a single top destination accounts for a disproportionately large share of the total population.